I suggest the most imputant thing is to find an itch that the kid might enjoy scratching. It doesnt need to meet any kind of bar for "proper" programming. And s

I suggest the most imputant thing is to find an itch that the kid might enjoy scratching. It doesnt need to meet any kind of bar for "proper" programming. And since tech is everywhere, there are lots of places to start: - alexa skills (start with one and modify it) - game mods eg skyrim (ditto) its a ton easier to make tiny tweaks to a codebase like this and get instant feedback, even if you are essentially cargo culting at this point. - mobile app kits. MIT had a kit once, i forget the name. make an app that makes a fart noise or texts a buddy etc. we're not talking material design and deep frameworks here. quick feedback and tinkering. - scratch games. i know ppl. think its toy but its quick to experiment with and the results are quick. do not, under any circumstances, let the kid get sucked into the tarpit of webapps. if they are into the web, have them spin up a wordpress site and start tinkering with plugins. tl;dr - newbies need quick feedback and early successes. tinkering helps.